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1 8 • r e s t a u r a n t d e v e l o p m e n t + d e s i g n • J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 1 8
Peer to Peer
By Amanda Baltazar
Q&A with
Jeff Little
L
ake Forest, Calif.-based Del Taco
is hungry for growth. This Mexican
brand — strong on the West Coast
and in the Southwest — is making
its way east with targeted expansions in
Atlanta and Orlando, Fla.
What started as a single restaurant
in 1964 has grown to 560 stores in 15
states, with just over half of the stores
company owned. The chain plans to keep
that mix going. "We feel it makes for
a well-rounded brand that's concerned
with the top line and the bottom line,"
says Jeff Little, senior vice president of
development. "On the company side, we
are looking for [cities] big enough to put
in 10 to 15 stores quickly, so that entails
larger markets. On the franchise side,
we'll go into smaller areas."
What is your background both before and
with Del Taco?
JL: I've been with Del Taco for just over
two years and cover franchising, real
estate, design, franchise recruiting —
anything that comes under growth is
in my shop. Prior to this, I was with El
Pollo Loco in a similar role, and prior
to that, I was with Yum! Brands for 20
years. I worked for all the Yum! brands at
some point and ran through lots of roles
— from director of development and
strategy to real estate.
What do you enjoy about working in devel-
opment with Del Taco?
JL: What drew me to it was, as the devel-
opment guy, you want to be building and
growing a brand. Yum! is going asset-
light, and I love the idea of taking a brand
like Del Taco and saying, "Let's introduce
a brand to the rest of the U.S." We're very
strong out here in the Southwest and very,
very strong in the far West, and people
think of us as equal to any Mexican
restaurant you can think of. So, we said,
"Let's take a great brand and put it in
other cities." It's really exciting.
The growth is definitely ramping up.
Prior to me getting here, we were build-
ing single-digit numbers of restaurants
per year. We are doing well north of that
today, and our strategy is to get to the
mid-single-digit growth — 3 percent to 7
percent growth — which on a base of 500
to 600 restaurants is upwards of 30 to
40 restaurants per year. We still think we
have some growth out here in the West,
but we are certainly penetrated here, and
the majority of growth will be eastern.
What are some of the challenges of your job?
JL: We are small and nimble and decisive,
but the lack of bureaucracy means you
have fewer folks trying to pull the sled.
On a brand level, the biggest challenge
is, how do you take a brand that has 50
years of history in California — and a
cult-like following — and how do you tell
people who have rarely experienced the
brand about all that? There's definitely a
brand culture about who and what we are.
We are fortunate because we do have a bit
of that Chick-fil-A or In-N-Out fanaticism,
so that creates some awareness when we
come to new markets.
A lot of people come out [West]
and experience the brand in Califor-
nia or Las Vegas. And people who are
transplants from here know about it. We
do try to bring [franchisees] out here
so they can experience the brand and
the culture and pass that back to their
burgeoning organizations.
When we think about going to new
markets, we want excitement and buzz and
Senior Vice President of Development for Del Taco